Please stop the spraying of Pesticides and Herbicides

In early 2020 Monaghan County Council passed a motion to address the use of pesticides and to allow low/no mow in some areas for the protection of pollinators and other biodiversity. When we then went into lockdown, council services were put on hold and there was a lot of spring growth that wasn't being managed in any way, which led to complaints from the public about messiness and overgrowth. As a result, the motion was reversed. The timing was unfortunate, as areas can be managed for beneficial wildness without becoming too messy and they can be very beautiful too!

OUR ASK

We are asking for Monaghan County Council to set an example and put some proper guidelines and policies in place before we do too much damage to our outer and inner ecosystems.

DAMAGING OUR ENVIRONMENT – OUTER ECOSYSTEM

The use of pesticides and herbicides is causing huge losses in our local biodiversity. Reduced biodiversity means humans will face a future where (1) our food supply will be more prone to failure (because no pollinators) and more vulnerable to pests and diseases (because we have messed with the natural food chains in delicately balanced ecosystems), and (2) where our water supply has been compromised. There have been a number of articles published recently about exceedances of pesticides in national and local water supplies and there is an appeal to the public to consider alternatives for gardening, farming and maintenance of sports grounds.

DAMAGING OUR BODIES – INNER ECOSYSTEM

Human exposure starts in the womb when pregnant women share their body’s chemical accumulation across the placenta, where it becomes part of a developing baby’s first environment.
This exposure continues throughout childhood when the fast-growing bodies of children take in more food, water and air than adults. A child’s biological systems are developing rapidly and can be disrupted by micro-doses of toxins during this period. The levels of pesticides and other chemicals in adults reflects each person’s unique accumulation and storage of chemicals over their lifetime. Just as children are particularly susceptible to chemical harm in the first years of life, our final decades also represent a window of increased vulnerability. The history of exposure that comes with age means our body's chemical burden may be at its peak just as our biological systems gradually begin to weaken and slow.

**We can do something about this – we can stop using pesticides and herbicides**

[Photograph of County Monaghan wildflowers by Fearghal Duffy, for more beautiful photos of local biodiversity follow him on Twitter at @FearghaRua]